The Week’s Most Popular Posts: August 31 – September 4, 2015

We asked our contributors to share the best book they read this month. We’ve got fiction, nonfiction, YA, and much, much more- there are book recommendations for everyone here! Some are old, some are new, and some aren’t even out yet. Enjoy and tell us about the highlight of your reading month in the comments.

It’s hard to pick five books that make you feel good about life, because it’s all so subjective. To be honest, if this wasn’t a genre list, there would have to be a cook book and a wine guide on here somewhere because, for me at least, one of the major things that makes me happy is a good meal and wine and laughter with friends. However, the other thing that makes me happier, calmer, more quietly content, is to get lost in a good book. And given that this is a booky website, I’m pretty sure you are all my people in this love too! So, here are five very different recommendations for books that might make you happier for a few hours. I hope you like them.

To find out, I contacted some publishers, and they hooked us up with their mapmakers, who told us how they work with authors, how they draw maps, and what they’ve contributed to the fictional worlds they draw.

So sit back, and prepare to travel without moving, as cartographers Tim Paul and Rhys Davies take us through the process of making a map of a place that doesn’t exist.